Boros Reckoner itself has proven to be an amazing tool in Standard; promoting not just an infinite life sequence but the "brain you for 13" combination with Blasphemous Act. In The Aristocrats, those cards linked arms to give Tom Martell a PT victory, and that WBR deck has continued to evolve via the good work of Jake Van Lunen, Brad Nelson, and a host of inheritors.

Naya has had some of the wildest swings in the format, manifesting as Midrange, Ramp, and mono-aggro Blitz decks, all. When Loxodon Smiter was previewed, it seemed like an aggro player's dream—a 4/4 creature for only three mana—but Loxodon Smiter has done more good work as a blocker of beatdown creatures than an active attacker; many sorts of Naya decks remain active and successful.

Let's look at some of these moves from the most recent Standard Open...

While Act 2 has many powerful cards, one of the centerpieces is Boros Reckoner. Boros Reckoner is a lockdown defender against Blitz decks (either it guarantees a two-for-one or discourages attacks at all)... and in this deck it is half of Act 2's endgame. Watch out for this deck's aggressive opens: it doesn't need to deal 20 damage... it only needs to get you to 13 life.

There are worse attacking decks than The Aristocrats. Falkenrath Aristocrat is an awesome four-drop. It can gobble up whichever creatures to defend itself, but is in particular synergistic with the deck's many Human creatures.

Naya Blitz

Naya Blitz is a RGW deck with a low mana count (often just twenty lands) and super-low mana curve. Naya Blitz, generally speaking, wants to do one thing: attack!

Naya Blitz is, offensively, one of the fastest decks in the current Standard, but it has the odd card it's afraid of:

As Boros Reckoner is big enough and fast enough (in creature combat) to put a serious slowdown on Blitz's blitzes, clever Naya Blitz players have modified their decks to help get creatures through in combat.

Millner added a couple of different cards to his deck that allow it to function a bit differently from other Blitz decks. Many Blitz builds have no removal at all, but Millner added a few Searing Spears to either move X/3 potential blockers out of the way or finish the opponent off. Kessig Malcontents is yet another way to finish games. It is a Human, allowing it to buff Champion of the Parish or be cast off of one of the deck's Maximum Number of Cavern of Souls.

No Standard deck can take on more comers in more different ways than Jund.

RWU Geist

As with Jund, RWU is a flexible trio of colors. It can play a total control game with lots of permission and flash creatures, a Planeswalker control game, or even run with an attack focus, using its red spells not just to defend itself but clear out blockers.

Playing a wide variety of different cards allows Blackard's version to play many different games.

This deck can put pressure on the opponent with Geist of Saint Traft and keep blockers out of the way with tons of different kinds of point-removal spells. Of particular note are Dragon's Maze burn spells Warleader's Helix and Turn & Burn. Both of these cards can kill a Sire of Insanity... a dangerous threat for any permission deck.

Ral Zarek, too, can tap potential blockers out of the way, as well as playing double Lightning Bolts to help finish off a game.

Barani played a more control-oriented RWU, despite also running a couple of copies of Geist of Saint Traft. He played many more permission cards than Blackard, another Sphinx's Revelation, generally more control cards.

Standard's best-performing decks tend to be aggressive ones, although the various midrange decks also have their adherents. Esper Control is a deck that is focused on creature removal and card advantage; essentially true control.

If you are in the market for an answer deck (rather than the more typical proactive ones), Esper can make for quite a convincing argument.

The present Standard gives players many options for viable decks. Beatdown, midrange, somewhere between beatdown and midrange, a little combo action out of The Aristocrats... and even the odd control deck! Viva Sphinx's Revelation!

Michael Flores is the author of Deckade and The Official Miser's Guide; the designer of numerous State, Regional, Grand Prix, National, and Pro Tour–winning decks; and the onetime editor-in-chief of The Magic Dojo. He'd claim allegiance to Dimir (if such a Guild existed)… but instead will just shrug "Simic."